Cousin Prea
by The Grimreaper PT
Summary: After discovering that she is a witch Phoebe starts to rethink a memory from her childhood. Cousin Prea came to stay with them one summer when they were kids. she digs deeper and discovers ananomaly in the Warren/Halliwell family tree that Grams and others tried to hide. Namely the story behind Grams' brother Gordon Johnson II and his wife who apparently died when he was 13yrs old.
1. Bedtime Shadows

Note: This story was written after I realised that the family tree shown in the show has a rather strange Anomaly. Even though it is claimed by Grams that there have not been any male children born into the family in quite a while, the family tree suggests that she has a brother Gordon Johnson II. It also states that he married a Francine Bowen who was 65 years older than him and died when he was 13. All very odd. This story is my way of explaining this. Also it may also be noted that on the Charmed Wiki it is stated that Francine Bowen may have been the fourth child of James Bowen and Iris Sauls. The other three being the parents of , and . This is my first Charmed fic. Let me know what you think.

Cousin Prea

It all started when they were kids. A silly misunderstanding, misinterpretation and misremembering because she was so young. Her imagination ran away with her. She was only 8 at the time and both entrigued and a little in awe of this girl. Her cousin Prea, who she didn't even know existed until she turned up on their doorstep. All these years that was what she had assumed, that somehow her imagination had gotten the better of her. But now, after reading from the book of shadows and learning about their true heritage, Phoebe couldn't be so sure anymore.

_Phoebe couldn't sleep. Grams had put her to bed hours ago, but she couldn't sleep. One by one she had heard the other doors close as everyone else went to bed. Even without getting up she knew that the whole house would be dark by now, everything was quiet. Maybe Prea was still awake. She had been drawing when Phoebe went to bed and had been too distracted to properly say goodnight to her youngest cousin._

_Decision made Phoebe pulled herself out of bed andputting her slippers on she crept towards the door. As she expected the hallway was dark. But she knew the way to the litle guest room that Prea was staying in without the lights. Silently she crept past Prue's room and stopped at Prea's door. It was sitting ajar so Phoebe put her fingers into the gap and pulled. The room was dark, but she could see from where she stood that Prea wasn't in bed. Moving slowly Phoebe inched further into the room. She could see that the door to the balcony was open so she moved towards it assuming that her cousin was outside. Before she reached it however something small with wings flew past her into the room. Turning sharply Phoebe thought she could see Prea on the ceiling above the bed, but it must have been a trick of the light because the next moment Prea was by her side with a hand on her shoulder. For a second in the shadows Phoebe thought she saw two black wings on her cousin's back, but that was crazy._

_"Are you alright Phoebe?"_

_The elder girl asked, and Phoebe nodded until she noticed that there was a cut on Prea's arm._

_"You're bleeding Pre."_

_She said turning so that she could get a better look at her cousin's injury. But the blood was gone._

_"Don't be silly Pheebs. I'm fine. Come on you should be asleep. Aunt Penny will have a fit if she finds you out of bed."_

_Shrugging away the weirdness Phoebe followed Prea as she took her back to bed. Maybe she had imagined it all. Cousin Prea was a little strange but she wasn't that strange. She was tall and thin with pale white skin and jet black hair. She took loads of pills every morning and she was alergic to loads of stuff. But she never got sick or hurt. She was always drawing away, but she ever finished a single picture. She always left the bottom corner blank. And she always called Grams 'Aunt Penny'. And on top of that she was also really strong. Even though she was really thin she could lift Phoebe easily when both Prue and Piper complained that she was too big for that now. Yawning Phoebe climbed into bed and Prea tucked her in. Right now she would try and get some sleep. Maybe in the morning she would ask her sisters if they thought there was something about cousin Prea. In the morning._

_In the morning she asked her sisters, but they just told her she was being silly. Prea had a medical condition. That was why she took so many pills. That was why she had to be careful with what she ate, and it was why she was so pale. Phoebe however wasn't convinced. She wondered whether she should ask Grams about it, but she didn't. Instead she talked to Prea while Prue and Piper were playing outside. Prea didn't go outside much, especially when it was Sunny. She said it was because she was so pale. She burned easily._

_When they talked about the night before Prea laughed. She showed Phoebe her arm, and turned around to show her that there were no wings on her back._

_"You've been reading too many stories Pheebs."_

_She laughed again, but stopped when they realised that Grams was standig in the doorway._

_"Why don't you go outside and play with your sisters for a while Phoebe. I want to speak to Prea for a moment."_

_Within a few weeks Prea was going away to boarding school. Although she promised to write to the three of them and Grams claimed that it had always been the plan for Prea to use the money her mother left her to go away for school. Phoebe always wondered whether it was her fault that her cousin had been sent away._

Phoebe sat on the porch with her coffee cup warming her hands thinking about everything that she had learned since the night before and how it made her question her childhood. Prea still wrote to her occasionally and she wrote back. Both of them keeping the other up to date on what was happening in their lives. It was strange. Even thou Prea was closer to both Prue and Piper in age, she had always been closer to Phoebe. It was probably because they were more similar. Prue was always saying that Prea was a bad influence. Always writing about the parties she went to, the all night events, the one night stands. She was an artist living off her artwork and the image she had built around herself. An image built around the private joke they shared about Phoebe's childhood imaginings. An image, a gimic that painted Prea as a demonic creature with black wings and a fear of the light. As the door opened behind her, Phoebe pulled herself out of her musings to talk to Piper about what she had learned.


	2. A Letter From Home

Note: A little bit from Prea's POV.

Cousin Prea

Prea smiled as she pulled the letter out of her mailbox, recognising the handwriting immediately. It was a letter from her cousin Phoebe. Obviously she had moved back home as she had been intending because Prea could see that the postmark read San Francisco. Humming as she walked, Prea climbed the stairs to her apartment and sat down to read the letter. Even if she hadn't been expecting to see it, Prea would have known that Phoebe was keeping something back in her letter. You can't con a con and after living a lie since she was 12yrs old and her mother died, Prea knew when she was being lied to.

The truth that Phoebe was keeping back in her letter was easy enough for Prea to figure out. It was as much in what her cousin said as what she didn't say. Prea had always maintained thatthe best way to lie was with the truth, just enough truth. And it appeared that Phoebe had taken her advice. In her letter she said that she and her sisters were 'closer than ever'. That they had found 'the perfect balance' living together. Prea smiled. She had been expecting this ever since she had gotten the news that Aunt Penny had died. She had been sad to hear about her Aunt, she was her father's sister after all. But that had been followed swiftly by the hope that maybe now everything could be out in the open. If the Charmed ones really were finally aware of their destiny maybe Prea wouldn't have to hide who she was anymore, at least not from her own family. She had been doing enough of that already.

_Prea tried not to panic when Aunt Penny sent Phoebe outside to play. She hadn't done anything wrong. Not that Aunt Pen would see it that way. Prea knew that even though Penny was her father's sister, she didn't actually trust her because of who her mother was, what she was. That and the fact that the one rule that Aunt Penny insisted on was that under no circumstances were her cousins to find out about magic. That meant that not only could Prea not practice magic while she was there, but she couldn't let her cousins see her using the other talents she had inherited from her mother either. She smiled encouragingly at Phoebe when the younger girl turned back for a moment before heading out of the door. Then she turned to Aunt Penny and waited for the inevitable implosion._

_"What was all that about Prea?"_

_Penny asked standing with her arms crossed looking down at the twelve year old sat on the sofa with a sketch book beside her._

_"Phoebe came into my room last night."_

_A single raised eyebrow was the only reaction that she got from the elder witch, so Prea kept talking._

_"I was out, just stretching my wings a little in the dark, but I didn't realise that she was there until I was coming back in. It was dark and she thinks she imagined it."_

_Aunt Penny sighed heavily as she sat down beside her niece. _

_"I know you are trying Prea. But it is difficult to pretend to be someone that you aren't, and it's not just the fact that you are a witch that youhave to keep from them. Have you thout anymore about what we talked about, about going away for school. I know a coven, just ojtside of LA. It's small, but you could at least practice magic there. I've explained the situation to them and they would be happy to take you in. Even with your complications._

Prea folded the letter and put it back into the envelope with a sigh. She had moved to LA not long after that and she had stayed away from her only family to keep the secret from them. She had stayed with the coven until she was 18 and she had learned how to keep her darker side hidden whilst living as much of a normal life as possible. She had found that her artwork sold enough to keep her going, and sold even better once she started manipulating the rumours that started over her pale skin, her sensitivity to the light and her nocturnal habits. She found that with just enough truth she could create this image to sell more of her work and yet hide the truth. By telling the world that she was a demonic creature that lived in the shadows, no one believed it. Instead they assumed that it was all a gimic, a facade to sell her work, and they embraced it.

Now though, maybe now she could go back home to her only living family. If she was right and her cousins had come into their powers then not only could she finally admit to them who she really was, but they would need all of the help that they could get. Evil would be out in force now and determined to bring down the charmed ones. But Prea could help so that that wouldn't happen, and she could help her cousins come to terms with the powers that they had been protected from until now.

As she set the letter aside, Prea glanced at the calendar on her fridge. Prue had a birthday coming up. That could be the perfect excuse for a visit. And if she planned it all carefully enough there would be enough time for her to find somewhere and move back to San Francisco by then. She would be perfectly placed then to help them without overwhelming them or forcing them to take her in. Perfect. Decision made, Prea wrote a quick reply to Phoebe hinting that she was debating moving back home. Smiling she set it aside to deal with later. It was getting lighter outside and she could do with some rest. Locking tbe door Prea made sure that noone could get in before she leapt into the shadowy rafters of her ceiling and curled up to sleep suspended in her other form.


	3. Prima

Note: Sorry I have been neglecting my stories recently. I intend to update as many as possible this month.

Cousin Prea

The three of them were standing in the living room talking about their Father when Phoebe remembered the letter she had received from Prea that week. It had been driven out of her mind by Victor's arrival and all the stress that it had brought, not to mention the three shapeshifting Warlocks they had faced.

"I'm just glad he came back no matter how long he stays. It's kinda nice feeling like a normal family again, whatever that means."

As Piper spoke the word 'Family' reminded Phoebe that she had forgotten something. But what Prue said next brought the letter firmly to the front of her mind.

"Yeah it's nice, I just hope that we don't have any more surprise family members turning up out of the blue anytime soon."

Even though Prea hadn't made any definite plans about moving back, she had hinted at it. At least this time they had warning as they were still in contact. When the letter had first arrived it hadn't seemed odd or out of place that their cousin wanted to move back. As far as they could tell, they were all the family that Prea had. But now, after Victor's reappearance in their lives not long after they had discovered their powers, the timing seemed suspicious.

"I think there will be at least one more. I got a letter from Prea the other day and she mentioned moving back to San Francisco. "

As she expected Phoebe saw a look of concern pass over Prue's face, but then the doorbell rang and it was momentarily forgotten.

It wasn't until later that night that Phoebe thought about the letter again. Their father had cancelled their plans but he had sent a video of home movies, which they had watched while reminiscing over what they remembered of him from when they were children. Now that the tape had run out and they had eaten Phoebe started to wonder about Prea again. She had come up to the attic to check the book of shadows but had found nothing. That didn't surprise her as she didn't have very much to go on except her memory and whatever she could remember about the persona her cousin had built.

Then she remembered the box she had first found the book in the night that she had come home. There had been something else stored in there, a shoebox under the book of shadows, that she had overlooked at the time for the book itself. Now she wondered what Grams could have stored in there, hidden alongside the family secret and their powers.

That was how Piper found her an hour later, sitting in one of the old chairs in the attic with an old magazine on her lap and a shoebox full of papers at her feet.

"Hey Pheebs, what are still doing up? It's late."

Phoebe looked up from the magazine she was reading. It was one of many tucked away in the shoebox. Every single one of them was about Prea, her career and her public persona 'Prima'.

"Just doing some reading."

She turned the article so that Piper could see the title.

" 'Prima, Demonic First Lady of the Art World.' Are you worried about Prea moving back?"

Phoebe shrugged putting the magazine back into the box.

"To be honest, I don't know. I didn't think anything of it before, but Prue's right it can't be a coincidence her moving back now. I just don't know why. You know we've always kept in touch. We write once a month at least and she always calls on my birthday."

Piper nodded, she had always known that they wrote to one another.

"She calls me too, and Prue. She's always been good about keeping in touch. I think she called every other day when Grams was in the hospital. We're all the family she has."

Pulling another chair over Piper sat across from her sister. She could tell that this was something Phoebe wanted to talk about.

"There's just something I've been wondering about. I remember this one time when I was a teenager. I was talking to Prea on the phone. I was complaining about being caught trying to sneak out. I could never come up with a convincing excuse for anything. And do you know what she told me?"

As Piper shook her head, Phoebe continued.

"She said that the best way to lie is with the truth, to make the truth sound like a lie."

Leaning over Piper to pick the magazine back out of the box. The pictures accompanying the article showed Prea hiding in the shadows with big black wings sprouting from her back. It was almost exactly the same as how Phoebe had described what she had seen as a child.

"Do you think there is some truth to this persona she puts on to sell her work?"

Phoebe chewed her thumb nail in thought for a moment before she answered.

"Yeah I do. I remember when it all started and we saw that interview she did on TV. She told me then that she based the whole thing on that night I thought I saw her on the ceiling, with the wings and everything. I always thought I imagined it, but now I'm not so sure."

Piper sighed as she dropped the magazine. If she was being honest she had started to wonder about Prea as well.

"I think you may be right. I remember that day, and there's something I never understood. I heard Grams on the phone to someone that night and until now it never made any sense..."

_Piper crept towards the banister on the landing and looked down. She could hear Grams on the phone down below. Usually she would ignore it, but the conversation didn't seem to make any sense. _

_"What in Hades do you think you are doing? That doesn't matter. What if somebody who knows the truth sees it? The ones who turned your mother may not still be around, but there are others. It is dangerous to draw attention to yourself like this. Someone or something could make the connection. Alright I'll admit I didn't think it was possible, but we don't want to advertise even the hint that half breeds exist. Sure there have been others that were half human, but nothing like this. No I know you didn't use that word. Yes I know that there is nothing that you can do about it now. Just be careful. Alright."_

"...But even if you are right, I don't think we have anything to worry about. Whatever she is, whatever a half breed is, Grams wouldn't have let her anywhere near us if she didn't trust her."


End file.
